This photo from the Magenn Power web site illustrates the visitors from the future model Magnus Spherical Airship.
This Magnus Airship was a large spherical envelope filled with helium to achieve static, buoyant lift. As the sphere rotated during forward motion, Magnus lift was generated proportional to the airspeed flowing over the sphere; the faster the vehicle, the higher the Magnus lift.
The approach is described further in US Patent 4,366,936 by Frederick Ferguson, from 1979.
Unfortunately when scaling up, the contribution to lift from helium is proportional to the volume of the balloon, but the contribution to lift from the Magnus Effect is only proportional to the area.
Copyright 1999-2009 Mark Wahl. All rights reserved.